The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has said that nearly 150,000 Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan and Iran this year, and this rapid and large-scale return has pushed Afghanistan into a deeper crisis.
According to the French news agency AFP, after hosting Afghan refugees for decades, Pakistan and Iran have accelerated the process of mass expulsions, which has forced millions of people to return to the country. The return is happening at a time when Afghanistan’s Taliban government is already struggling to provide basic services to its citizens.
Addressing a press briefing in Geneva, Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative in Afghanistan, said that “nearly 150,000 Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan so far this year.” This large number is worrying given the harsh winter and heavy snowfall, he said in Kabul.
This arrival is in addition to the returns since October 2023. In 2025, 2.9 million people returned, bringing the total to 5.4 million. According to Arafat Jamal, people are returning in extremely difficult conditions, whether they are arriving at the border with family or alone. It is difficult for those returning to Afghanistan to restart life in a new country that is already struggling with poverty, environmental problems and humanitarian crises.
“The speed and number of returns have pushed Afghanistan further into crisis,” he said. The country is already dealing with a deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation, a weak economy and recurring natural disasters.
UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told AFP that the number of returnees this year is 50 percent higher than last year. Last year, when nearly 100,000 Afghans returned, UNCHR surveys found that many families lack legal documentation and more than 90 percent are living on less than $5 a day, according to Arafat Jamal.
He also said that “the return process does not seem sustainable as some families are being forced to leave Afghanistan again.” “These decisions are not due to a desire to migrate, but to the fact that many people are unable to build a dignified and viable life here again.”
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